Presto Change-O!



Uh, oh, over at http://www.sewerwatch.blogspot.com/, Ron Crawford is asking some intereting questions involving "Making the Governor's AB2701 'Signing Statement' Disappear." Ah, so many interesting questions, and here comes "bait & switchy" again, and what DID happen with Ron's filed "complaint?" Was that just stuck in a (round) file somewhere? Well, let's hope County Counsel has some answers.



As for me, I just end up with more questions, especially since Mr. Jensen's supposed to have a report on the MWH formal complaints made to the BOS concerning MWH being short-listed for the County project. Some of my questions concerning MWH aren't formal complaints, just curious. Like, Has the CSD's attorney undertaken any negotiations of any sort with the SRF people and/or MWH in any way shape or form? Do the members of the [bankruptcy] creditors committee overseeing the CSD bankruptcy proceedings have a fiduciary duty to the CSD and if so, do any of those committe members know of or have had any dealings with MWH in any way, shape or form? Is anyone on the CSD Board and/or the CSD's attorney trying to settle the MHW lawsuit now stalled in Bankruptcy Court? Is settlment in the best interest of the CSD or in the best interest of MHW? Or is some settlement"deal" being looked at involving the [illegal?] SRF loan, (see Ron's blog entry linked above), the MWH/CSD breach of contract suit and the county's short-list? And, while I'm at it, didn't one of the MWH sub-contractors donate pots of money to the anti-recall fund, if memory serves, so now I'm wondering if MWH or one of it's subsidiaries ever donated money to any of Sam Blakeslee's campaigns? Not that there would be anything illegal or improper about such a donation, I'm just curious.

And most curious of all is this Question: Just who IS looking out for the best interests of the citizens of the PZ, anyway? Well, who knows?

Get A Kitty Today

POUNCE, a wonderful Los Osos organization that rescues, rehabs and adopts out cats is having an open house Saturday (today) from noon to 4 pm. at POUNCE representative, Marge Legerton's house: 259 Los Padres, in Los Osos. They've got wonderful cats of every size and age that need wonderful homes. Do drop by and get yourself a cat .. . . or two.

Your Saturday Poem

From Billy Collins new collection of poem, "Ballistics."

Hippos On Holiday

is not really the title of a movie
but if it was I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippo look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat mypopcorn
in the dark of a neighborhood theatre.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.

I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?

War of the Words

I was sent the following email, with permission to post, regarding comments made on the comment section of this blog by a not-so-anonymous poster. I’m leaving out the poster’s name (followers of this blog will know just who this email was sent to, plus the “Anonymous” poster herself asked the reader to go back to the May 29th “Field Trip” entry to read her June 2 entry, so she clearly wanted her comments to get a wider readership than just in that particular comment string) because this email points up important points that go beyond personalities and the usual ankle-chewing that goes on in the comment section of this blog.

I have said, repeatedly, that “anonymous” posters have NO credibility. So long as they don’t get too potty-mouthed, or stray too far into smack-out libel, I allow them to post until they have hanged themselves with their own rope. Their anonymous “voice” always comes through.

But, besides the ranters and blatherers, there’s another regular “voice” that appears here. I call them the Holy Supplicants. For these people, there’s a carefully crafted mantra of misinformation, wrong “facts,” misrepresented “facts,” and “facts that they just make up on the spot, then repeat over and over and over, like a true believer running their rosary beads. No amount of “setting the record straight” works. Other posters can chime in and state actual, true facts, but like swallows returning to Capistrano, the bead runners will return to the same false mantra. Talk about “staying on message.” Quite remarkable.

I have said before, to tell the real story of The Hideous Sewer Wars, you’d need a volume the size of an Encyclopedia, complete with a separate set of footnotes. For every “fact” you can have 38 sub-sets of “facts” ‘splaining even more “facts.” And that’s not counting alternative interpretations or nuancing of those “facts.”

Add onto that, all the basic tar-baby lies that have dogged this project from day one, the paranoia level engendered thereby, and the sheer complexity of the material, and it’s no wonder things get muddled. However, some of what transpires in the comment section of this blog, isn’t mere confusion or muddlement. For some regular posters, it’s clearly a case of deliberate misinformation. That becomes clear, as mentioned above, when a misstatement is corrected and a short time later, there it pops up again, by the same poster, the lie reappearing as if it had never been corrected.

In a way, it’s all very funny, this Orwellian writing and re-writing of history – Sewerville’s version of the parlor game, “Telephone,” with a hilariously muddled “story” coming out the other end. On the other hand, certain elements of this game aren’t funny at all since The Big Lie can result in real harm to a community – tell it long enough and skillfully enough and loud enough, and all manner of odd things can be pulled off and then buried out of sight, out of mind.

After all, Jake, it’s Chinatown. And The Hideous Sewer Wars have been big enough and lasted long enough to encompass several Chinatowns. Oh, and as for the “anonymous” poster’s final opinion concerning the SLO County Counsel’s report on the complaint about MWH's, uh, oddities, brought to the County by Lisa Schicker, I have said previously and will say again: The law may require officials look at or into something, but the law does NOT require that they see anything. “Seeing,” more often than not, is a matter of practical and/or political expediency. I'm just saying . . .

The email:


I was sent this blog comment that you wrote and posted on Ann's site. I don't read these regularly, and don't blog but I think most can see through your attempt to create a smoke-screen by attacking the messenger. I want you to know that the record exists on issues you continue to misrepresent and state as facts has been corrected publicly several times at this site. Further accusations have been addressed MANY times publicly in print and recorded on video.

Be aware that while free speech on blogs is somewhat protected, you do have some responsibility to avoid continued libelous harassment of me. You also have obligations to correct errors and omissions when you have made slanderous or libelous comments against a private citizen and they are found to be untrue, you must discontinue such comments.

In your posting you are either mistaken, based on your refusal to read and research, or simply a habitual liar.

If you wish information you might consider contacting me other others, read reports and research before you spout off. However, it appears your only goal is personal attacks, and embarrassing displays of your own ignorance of the subject matter in which you engage.

Response:

[“anonymous poster’s” comments in italics]

Another bizarro thing today at the Supes.
Gail McP - convicted of lying - who lost her job and license as a result - stands before the Board and tries to convince them that Paavo and MWH have done something illegal. Like they (or we) should give one moment of credibility to what she says? Did she think we'd forget? She says "laws need to be taken seriously!" Guess she forgot those words apply to herself as well.

I was never convicted of lying, charges against me were modified to NO MORAL TURPITUDE, and then completely dropped, and the DA statements and documentation exonerated me. I never lost my license. (in fact my grade 5 certification it is still active) I was not fired from my job. This is information readily available. I believe you are intentionally libeling/slandering me to assist in a cover up.

She is accusing them of civil and criminal violations that MUST be investigated thoroughly!
· I have a right to review documents supporting the complaint against Paavo, MWH and to provide my opinion in public. (have YOU read the reports and weighted the evidence?)

She - who still has not denied that she stole documents from the CSD office, she - who lied about candidates running for office,
· I have copies of public documents, as do may others including yourself. Every document was legally obtained and they were not stolen.


she - who conned the CSD into paying for her PZLDF suit –

The PZLDF is not my lawsuit. The parties are listed in the complaint. The LOCSD was a voluntary party and the RWQCB placed them as a party in 2006 because Mr Seitz defended the CSD in the ACL on the grounds Measure B shielded the CSD from TSO fines and the CDO was the only means of enforcement. Again, have you read anything at all?

she has the audacity to TELL the Supes what they MUST do.

· Elected representatives are exactly the one we are expected to tell what we-the people (yes, me too) think they must do. Did you go to school and sleep through basic civics classes?
·
If what she says is true - why didn't the Lisa Board file suit against MWH before they went into bankruptcy?
· Huh? ...now I know you haven't bothered to listen or read a thing. @ resolution were passed by the board to send information on the crime to the DA and the AG in 2006 –before the bankruptcy. Blind fools-read the report and other documents filed in 2005 and 2006 following the recall. Lisa reported the crime to law enforcement in 2004-05 when she found the backdated contracts. She has a legal obligation to report.

Goodness knows - they had those two guys upstairs going over contracts with magnifying glasses.

Read the reports the consultants made that support the false claims lawsuit against MWH which the current board majority is frantically working to settle so MWH can actually qualify for the RFP. (The RFP is stalled until this can be ironed out!). That is actually a form of bid rigging itself!

They had box loads of documents in Gail's living room!

Again---- I have copies of public documents, as do many others including yourself. Every document was legally obtained and they were not stolen. Quit lying.

Wanna bet that BWS told them that they didn't have a case?

Again—to the contrary, the DA said the crime occurred. BWS knew they had strong case, BWS was forced out by TW lawsuits for a reason. AB 2701 meant to bury that past contract issue. It would have until MWH became the favorite.

That the contract executed back in 1999 was valid and that it committed the Board to go ahead with it from that time forward?


Can you read….? Are you an expert in contracts? The DA said the contract was illegal. The subsequent one was not executed by backdating and signed illegally by Bruce Buel and Karen Vega.

They have nothing left - so I guess it's time to trot out those flimsy allegations as BWS isn't watching (or billing) to try and make something stick. I'm sure we will all know more when Warren Jensen's report is put on the LOWWP site on Monday. And that Gail and Lisa, in this vendetta, are going to look pretty foolish. 9:32 PM, June 02, 2009

Why are you afraid of an independent third party oversight of the project procurement process? ---do you even know what that is?


Gail McPherson

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

The following email from SWAP (Small Wilderness Area Preservation.) If you know the moron or morons responsible for this, please make that call.

SMALL WILDERNESS AREA PRESERVATION (S.W.A.P.)Los Osos/Morro Bay Chapter * P.O. Box 6442, Los Osos, CA 93412Contact: 528-0392 for information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - DESTRUCTION IN ELFIN FOREST A vandal spent the afternoon on Memorial Day wreaking havoc in a portion of the El Moro Elfin Forest Natural Area. The Los Osos preserve sits on the southeastern shore of Morro Bay. The area that was vandalized is fenced off and not open to the public. The intruder cut through fencing and systematically used hands, feet and possibly a heavy tool tearing and breaking limbs off Morro Manzanitas. The Morro Manzanita is a federally listed threatened plant species under the Endangered Species Act. It exists only in the area of Los Osos and nowhere else on earth. A member of Small Wilderness Area Preservation, SWAP, the organization that saved the Elfin Forest from development scared the intruder away. The noise of breaking wood alerted the SWAP member to the intruder's actions. The area that suffered damage extends for over an acre and may have been vandalized on more than one day. The vandal also damaged or destroyed several projects in the area such as revegetation and installation of controls against soil erosion. The affected dune habitat is quite sensitive to human intrusion and contains numerous native plants and animals. The identity of the intruder remains unknown. Federal, State and San Luis County authorities have been notified of the incident. SWAP is offering a reward of $1,000 to anyone who has information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.
The SWAP phone number in Los Osos is 528-0392.


It’s The Rock!

“Ripley Refutes Leaky Logic of County’s STEP vs Gravity Comparison”, at www.rockofthecoast.com

Calhoun’s Can(n)ons for June 2, 09

Killing Dr. Tiller

Like a malignancy returning, it was just a matter of time before that ongoing intolerable affront to the fundamentalist patriarchal mind-set forced a man to pick up his gun. To the shooter and his supporters, killing Dr. Tiller, the Kansas abortion provider, wasn’t murder. It was merely a correction in the proper order of things. Because the shooter and all those who believe as he does are incapable of acknowledging that women have the same moral autonomy and authority as men do, Doctor Tiller had to die.

It’s an old, old story.

In the state where Dr. Tiller was murdered, the law is clear; late term abortions, like those provided by Dr. Tiller, are only allowed to preserve the health of the woman and a second doctor, legally and financially independent, must agree with the diagnosis. These are not the whimsical abortion stories dreamt up by certain right-wing demagogues, filled with Freudian fantasies of thousands of idle rich white women killing their babies because a pregnancy would prevent them from wearing their latest Prada, or coked-out black welfare queens aborting their babies so they can go to a Saturday night orgy. The Kansas abortions were dangerous medical procedures offered to women whose pregnancies have gone horribly awry. They are a graphic sad glimpse of the often brutal indifference of reproduction -- Mother Nature seeks only to ensure that a species will survive; an individual life is of no consequence in that grand scheme. It is a reality that our smiley-faced culture and modern medicine conspires to keep out of the public eye, but a check of early cemeteries will confirm it; graves filled with young women dead of childbirth, buried forever with their babies. That reality is still there and it is a reality all women know deep in their bones.

It is a fearsome knowledge -- that profound awareness that for a woman, sex and birth and death are forever linked – that adds a special dimension to a woman’s moral and ethical autonomy. It is a cell-deep knowledge that men will never know in the same way, and it carries with it a heavy burden of responsibility and danger. And to a fundamentalist, patriarchal mind-set, that knowledge is an intolerable threat to a system that sees women as morally inferior to men, beings lacking a head who must be guided by their husbands, silent in church, half-formed creatures who should be seated at the kids’ table with the other children. To grant such beings full moral and ethical autonomy over their own bodies and wombs, or to even acknowledge the power of such special knowledge, is simply not to be tolerated. And so, Dr. Tiller, and all other abortion doctors, has to die in order to restore male control over these headless, half-formed creatures. To grant women full moral autonomy over their lives and pregnancies would be to invite chaos and a fundamentalist world turned upside down.

So the killing spasms will continue, the rhetoric will ramp up, the culture wars reignite, all signs of dark, unresolved fevers still raging in the body politic. Meantime, anti-science reproductive ignorance, shame, and fear, a failed medical delivery system, a failing education system, a crumbling safety net and an economic crash, will continue to contribute to the hypocritical public debate about the “sanctity of life,” a piece of hokum that’s only useful to fuel various political bases and continue this religious-based, misogynistic culture war over women’s bodies.

Enough. We know how to do better. We know how to be better. We have so many choices, so many middle-paths, so much wisdom to draw from. But we cannot move anywhere until we see clearly – life is a beautiful, fragile, often ugly, deadly dangerous process that can break bad at any moment. And each of us, men and women alike, must be accorded the presumption of having full ethical and moral autonomy and authority to make choices for ourselves and then bear the burdens or blessings that come with those choices.

And those choices must be made by us, not by a strange man with a gun.